BAYTOWN, Texas – A man is dead after he was shot and killed by a Baytown police officer Monday morning in a motel parking lot.
The shooting happened at around 7:30 a.m. at the Bays Inn and Suites in the 2300 block of Decker Road in Baytown. Police say a 911 call was placed by a motel resident who had confronted a suspect breaking into their car. The victim told police the man pointed a shotgun at him and a co-worker before running back inside the motel.
Officers responded and went inside the motel to look for the man with a gun. They found him in one of the rooms along with two other men and a woman. The suspect with the shotgun ignored officer's warnings to drop the gun, and began crawling out of a window into the parking lot.
Another Baytown officer who was in the parking lot again told the man to drop the gun, and when the man did not obey the command, he was shot by the officer, according to police.
"He pulled the shotgun on the guy who owned the car, and then he pulled the shotgun on one of our officers. The officer took defensive action and he fired several shots with a rifle," said Assistant Baytown Police Chief Roger Clifford.
The man died at the scene, police say. His name was not immediately released, nor was the name of the officer.
Baytown detectives say three people -- two men and one woman -- were taken into custody to be questioned by police, and that burglary tools and narcotics were found in their room.
Investigators also recovered surveillance video from the motel security cameras they say shows the suspect being confronted in the parking lot. The Harris County District Attorney's Office is investigating the shooting.